The Who Announces North American Tour Dates, Will Play Quadrophenia

The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend will reunite for a 37-date North American tour, and will be playing their 1973 album, Quadrophenia.

The band announced the news today via a live video press conference.

“It’s been four years since we’ve been out,” Townshend said. “We’ve been trying to find something we could do together, Roger and I, for awhile. In a sense, Quadrophenia was something we both felt we could get together on.”

The Who seemed in good spirits as they reminisced about the album and the history of the band.

“In 1972 and 73, we’d had a really fantastic period of success, and what we needed was to find out reflection in our fans, and that’s kind of what that album became about,” Townshend said.

Townshend said the album reconnects him with his younger days.

Longtime collaborators Simon Townshend, Zak Starkey and Pino Palladino will round out the rest of The Who this tour.

Townshend said that Daltrey will be in charge of putting together the live show, and that he will largely stay out of those decisions.

“I know what my job is, I wrote it along time ago,” he said. “What Roger is doing these days is essentially creating a new way of putting it across and bring it up to date.”

Daltrey talked about the dynamic of their current live band, and about recapturing his chemistry with Townshend.

“We drive each other,” he said. “Pete drives me, and I hope I drive him.”

Townshend said that the current band is its own thing, and that they would not try to recreate the orignal Who sound. He also talked about how, despite missing John Entwistle and Keith Moon, he felt liberated to not have to try and carry on their legacy anymore.

“I don’t mean to make a good thing out of two deaths, but sometimes that’s just what happens,” he said. “I’m not saying that what I do now is better than what I did then, but I do feel freer to explore what I did back then, and to find new things.”

He also talked about his improved musical relationship with Daltrey.

When the band were questioned about creating holographic images of Entwistle and Moon for their live show, Daltrey admitted he had entertained the idea.

“We thought about it, but everyone’s doing it now,” he said. “I don’t think we need it. I mean, it’s only a gimmick.”

Daltrey also said the members would be playing other songs from their catalog, including some of their hits.

“I saw Paul McCartney recently, and I really realized when did that concert, that people do so much want to hear the hits,” Daltrey said. “It’s great to hear the classic stuff, like Quadrophenia. But to kiss them goodnight, what better than ‘Baba O’Riley’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’? Although maybe not on the same night…”

The band said that right now North America is the only planned destination for the tour.

“One step at a time,” Daltrey said. “America is somewhere, where if you’re going to tour anywhere, it’s the easiest place in the world to tour. And fabulous audiences.”

You can check out the entire press conference below, as well as the 2012/2013 tour dates.